advice needed on rushed negative feedback left by buyer

[asyahijab]

I got an order for 4 items from a buyer who left me negative feedback because (I think) he was misunderstanding about my partial refund on shipping. He paid for shipping $5.98 and I refunded $3 that I intended as a discount but he thought I canceled his order. He was mad and posted negative feedback right away without waiting my respond on his inquiry.

I already shipped his item before he left negative feedback with tracking number within 24 hours after order received.

Message to the buyer explaining the refund was already sent, but what should I do with negative feedback? Should I sent feedback revision or report the buyer or call ebay asking feedback to be removed?

Unfortunately his feedback is the only one I got for more 6 month and killing my performance :(.

[ricarmic]

I'm making the assumption that english is not the first language for the buyer (what country are they from?)

For certain send them another message advising that all 4 items are on their way (include the tracking number) and reiterate that the refund was only to refund the overpaid shipping (if they are from another country use google translate to translate your message from english to their language and then back to english to see what it translates to. Sometimes the translations lose the meaning or creates the opposite meaning!)

Also ask them if they are ok to change their feedback to positive once they receive the item and can see that all 4 items were enclosed. (I don't suggest asking them to do it before the items arrive)

I would write a response to the feedback maybe something like:

All items shipped, buyer misunderstood overpaid shipping partial refund

Editing update. OOPS I haven't had my coffee yet. I did not notice that they left the same message as 2 positive feedbacks as well as 2 negatives. There are only 2 ways I know that the false positives can be fixed, they call ebay and get the false positives removed or you call ebay and get it removed. Ebay will probably not do anything until the 2 negatives are changed, generally they won't take the sellers word for stuff like this (understandably).

It might be worthwhile to call ebay and explain the situation. It might be best to do that after tracking shows as arrived.

[asyahijab]

Thanks Ricaramic for the advice.

My buyer is in State.  He sent me a message expressing his disappointment of canceling his order in very good English. 

I don't understand why he had thought I canceled his order. I looked his profile and found that he is not inexperience eBayer, He has some feedback as seller (without item for sale at this time) and interesting part he had bought from me before. 

Uhh never thought that refunding extra shipping could give me this problem. I wish I just keep that $3 for a cup of cofee.

[ypdc_dennis]

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@asyahijab wrote:
... never thought that refunding extra shipping could give me this problem. ...

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When I refund, I always include a message about why the refund is being made.

-..-

[asyahijab]

My bad, I thought a small note included when you make refund is sufficient enough to explain the refund.

In future I will make sure to send a message before refund. Thanks for the advice.

[ricarmic]

Yes whenever I do a shipping refund I open PAYPAL and get ready to do the refund and ebay and write the message (but don't send) in ebay explaining that I am sending a partial refund because they overpaid shipping.

Then I do the refund in PAYPAL.

Then immediately I send the eBay message advising they've received a partial refund and it should be in their PAYPAL account now.

With respect to your situation, all is not lost, the buyer most likely will respond to your message explaining the situation. Assuming they're in the 90% of the relatively happy, polite portion of society, they will now understand and respond and that will give you the chance to work with them to get it fixed.... let us know what happens!!!

[asyahijab]

The negative feedback is removed by eBay as I called today, but  the false positive with negative comment are still there.

Should I called them back to fix it (remove it)  or just let it like that and write a reply on the feedback. I am concerned on the DSR actually. He might left 1 star for me.

[sylviebee]

Just a note regarding shipping overpayments:  If a buyer doesn't specifically ask for a refund for an overpayment it's usually pointless.

Now and then I get a refund for a shipping overpayment and I like that, but I'm rarely if ever aware of who/where it came from.  Once a buyer has paid it's usually out of mind.  If not buyers tend to let you know.

You could call and ask for a revision but if they do anything it will probably be to remove the comment portion of the FB and leave it blank.  In many ways that's not really an improvement.

[femmefan1946]

the false positive with negative comment

Most customers won't read it.

They look for the percentage and don't read positive feedback.

[pjcdn2005]

eBay doesn't usually remove false positive for sellers and they definitely don't remove low dsr's so I wouldn't bother calling them but its up to you.

I'm not sure if I would leave a reply or not. I doubt that most buyers read positive feedback although it may draw their attention to it if there is a comment there as well.

[lady.stark]

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@asyahijab wrote:

He paid for shipping $5.98 and I refunded $3 that I intended as a discount but he thought I canceled his order.

I already shipped his item before he left negative feedback with tracking number within 24 hours after order received.

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I'm a bit curious.... can I ask what method of shipping you use that gives you a tracking number for such a low shipping cost?

[asyahijab]

Note for future. I will keep the extra for cofee 🙂

[asyahijab]

I use Canada Post.
The two of 4 items he bought were listed as shipping included (free shipping) and the other two were as half of the shipping cost already included in asking price.
I would pay the same amount to ship 3 items or 4 items, that's way I refunded the shipping cost of the 4th items paid by my buyer.

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

Personally I never refund over payment on shipping unless the buyer asked me (rare). I just throw them into my cookie jar and will include some bonus items in the mail that the buyer might like.
It's nice that you do though!

[ricarmic]

Generally refunding $$$ is my last resort*. 

I am lucky** that I have a LOT of stuff. Usually I can find more material that matches the type the buyer has purchased this time or at an earlier time and I include bonus stamps labelled "overpaid shipping". The buyer won't know how much it was worth, and I regularly get positive comments from the buyers for the extra stamps.

*Note that for me normally this is only the case for international buyers because my .COM and .CA are free shipping so there is no visible "overpayment" in those cases.

**wife does not necessarily agree with this.